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Party
The adventuring party is the group of heroes who are the protagonists of the game. A well-balanced party is usually made up of Characters of different Classes with different abilities, who fulfill various roles and support each others' strengths and weaknesses to overcome challenges. Party Structure In the Bard's Tale games, parties are limited to six (Tales of the Unknown) or seven (The Destiny Knight & The Thief of Fate) characters. In the 1st game, the "zero" slot is reserved as a "special" slot for Summoned Monsters - in the later games, summoned monsters always appear in the front ranks of the party. Characters who are killed or turned to stone automatically go to the back of the party - summoned monsters who are killed disappear from the party ranks! Only the first four characters in the party (S-3 or 0-3) can attack or be attacked in melee Combat, so it's best to make sure anyone in the front four ranks has high Armor Class, and keep your spellcasters in the rear three ranks. It can be a very good idea to keep a Bard in the 4th rank as an "insurance policy" - if one of your front line fighters is killed, the Bard will step forward to fill the gap, and Bards generally have much better Armor Class than spellcasters! To change party order, use the N key while traveling - don't forget to do this after resurrecting and healing your fallen comrades! Party Composition The fundamentals of a good party are: * The Bard. * At least two spellcasters. New players should employ three spellcasters. * Hard-hitting or well-armored people who can clean up annoying monsters and protect the above characters. Experienced players may be able to accomplish this through summoned / recruited monsters. For all of these parties, the seventh character is only recruited at either the end of The Destiny Knight, after the Destiny Wand is reforged, or at the beginning of The Thief of Fate, a game in which you never need to allow any NPCs into your party. Recommended party for beginners: # Monk # Paladin (change to Geomancer) # Bard # Conjurer # Conjurer # Magician # Rogue (move to slot 4 when he gets strong enough) The intent is that you would spend a large amount of time building up your magic users to the point where finding enough SP-cost-reducing equipment and casting TRZP repeatedly are non-issues. Offense-oriented party: # Monk # Hunter (change to Geomancer after clearing out most of Malefia, for the purpose of casting WAWA) # Bard # Conjurer # Conjurer # Magician # Rogue (move to slot 4 when he gets strong enough) You had better be prepared to visit the temple or rest in the inn quite often in the early game. Later on, though, you will be nearly unstoppable. Challenge party: # Monk # Paladin (change to Geomancer) # Bard # Rogue # Conjurer # Magician # Conjurer (train into a Chronomancer) A decrease of 50% in recommended magical power is indeed challenging, but at least you'll have a Rogue ready for The Thief of Fate if he can survive. Cheap party: # Monk # Monk # Monk (change to Geomancer) # Bard # Conjurer # Magician # Conjurer (train into a Chronomancer) Most useful for the early game of Tales of the Unknown, in which gold can be quite scarce. Orthodox party: # Paladin (change to Geomancer) # Hunter # Bard # Rogue # Conjurer # Magician # Conjurer (train into a Chronomancer) The very concept of the Monk within the context of D&D-inspired games is troublesome for some players. This party should be decently effective without relying too much on metagaming or non-orthodox D&D concepts. Only the first two games: # Monk # Paladin # Hunter # Bard # Conjurer # Magician Magic should be reserved for seriously life-threatening situations. Category:Game Mechanics Category:Gameplay